JOTW Rock and Roll Trivia Question for January 19, 2009

When the lead singer for this band died, the band members thought he was irreplacable. Out of nowhere came a guy who sounded just like the former lead singer, but who had no experience in performing. “The biggest crowd he had ever sang in front of was forty people at a karaoke bar in a bowling alley.” With their new lead singer, this band still performs. The group's founder and creative genius had been a senior product engineer with Polaroid when he laid down the original demo tracks mostly by himself at his home. Their first album, released in 1976, went on to be the biggest selling debut album by any artist up to that time.

Tom Scholz earned both a bachelor's degree (1969) and a master's degree (1970) in Mechanical Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and worked for Polaroid as a senior product design engineer. His off-duty interest in music and recording technology led to him recording demos in his makeshift basement studio, playing most of the guitar, bass, and keyboards himself. Scholz put together Boston and recorded the debut album of the same name. Epic Records insited the album be professionally recorded in a stiudio, but most of that album was actually recorded in his basement.

When lead singer Brad Delp died in 2007, the band lined up former Stryper singer Michael Sweet to assume the duties as front man. But the search for a replacement also found a fan, Tommy DeCarlo, who was a former credit manager for a North Carolina outlet of The Home Depot. Sweet and DeCarlo shared the lead singer role on the group's 2008 tour.